Pumpkin Time

I have been working on a wedding quilt for a good friend of Emma's.  The top is all done and I hope to quilt it later this week.  I will post a picture when I get it done.

I decided to work on a little project last night until I can get enough time to do the quilting.  I recently bought a calendar row quilt pattern.  My thought is to get a row done each month along with my bigger projects.  That way in a year it is all done and I didn't have to work too hard on it.  Last night I cut out the pumpkin row pieces for October and started sewing on it.  Finished it up this morning and I love how it came out.  November's row is turkeys and corn...think it will be a little harder.  These rows will be my "treats" to keep me motivated and satisfy my Quilter's ADHD.

This picture is the whole row while the one above is just a close up of part of it.

Texas Country Christmas Quilt

I entered this quilt in our county fair.  It won a blue ribbon. Bill was at the fair this morning with his class.  He sent me a text saying it won and I asked him if it was the only quilt entered in its category.  LOL  While there were only a few quilts entered, the blue ribbon was exciting.  Mark one more thing off my bucket list!  Now I'm motivated to get some more projects done and I'll have a fun quilt for my bed at Christmas. It is a king size quilt and I'll post a picture of the whole quilt when I get it back home. The pattern was adapted from Carolina Christmas by Bonnie Hunter, http://www.quiltville.com/ . I finished it back in late winter except for the binding which I finished a few hours before checking it in at the fair.  Nothing like a deadline to get me to finish something.
A funny sideline was that Emma and I were looking at it tonight and lifting up the corner for the picture. A volunteer came to ask me not to touch it when she realized it was my quilt.  I've always wanted to touch a quilt at a show (the rebel in me).  Another thing checked off the list!

Time at Telephone

My 2 sisters, my brother, our spouses, my daughter, neices and nephew met at Telephone to bury our brother's ashes on Sunday.  We all had a hard time time beliving it will be 4 years in December since Joe died.  It was sad but good to be together. Wish all of the neices and nephews could have been with us but we have them spread out from NYC to Seattle and places in between. We spent last night and together today at our other brother, John's ranch.  It was so good to be out in the peace and quiet and enjoy the cool weather.  Still needing rain but the lower temperatures were wonderful.  Some of the wildlife we saw were the cows in the pasture of course, the resident donkey couple, and a cyote that seemed annoyed that we drove by.  He just stopped and stared at us as we drove by while he was making a side trip through the pasture. He was probably thirsty and following the cows to the pool.   Of course an armadillo went foraging for his dinner while we were sitting on the porch after finishing up our supper so that was fun to watch. 

I just walked through the kitchen at home and could still smell the wood smoke on my sweatshirt hanging on a chair.  My brother was awake drinking coffe in the dark of the great room when I got up this morning about 6:30.  He and I sat out on the porch and watched the sun come up - well as much as we could see through the trees.  It was cold so he started a fire in the chimenea ....as his good friend taught him how to do in the "old Indian way"...with lighter fluid.  Seems as he has always had fun with fire.  But it eventually burned down to a nice wood fire and the porch roof survived. 

I took a quilt with me to finish sewing down the binding.  I took it to our county fair this afternoon. I've never entered one so it was hard to leave it behind.  It's my adaptation of Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Christmas.  I called it Texas Country Christmas.  My sister took a picture but I forgot to have her get one with my camera so I'll have to put it here on next week.

Time to get ready for bedtime as the munchkins will be happy to be at preschool tomorrow.